{"id":122548,"date":"2022-02-04T15:48:12","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T22:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=122548"},"modified":"2022-02-04T15:48:12","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T22:48:12","slug":"sri-lankas-march-to-freedom-alongside-the-rest-of-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/02\/04\/sri-lankas-march-to-freedom-alongside-the-rest-of-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s march to freedom alongside the rest of Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka won freedom not in isolation but in step with the rest of Asian countries\nin the aftermath of the end of the Second World War in 1945. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nfactors contributed to the collapse of Western Colonial Domination of Asia. But\nthe outstanding and most notable factor was the epic attack of the Japanese on\nPearl Harbour on December 07, 1941, followed by Japan\u2019s attacks on military\nbases in European colonies including India (Imphal and Kohima), and Ceylon.\nJapan ended the colonial occupation of Burma, Indonesia, Malaya, Philippines,\nSingapore, Hong Kong, Indo \u2013 China, Vietnam and several Pacific countries that\nwere under foreign occupation. These blitzkrieg type Japanese victories\ninspired the National Liberation movements all over Asia and even Africa to\ncome forward and fight for their freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1939, i.e., prior to the beginning of the second world war, the entirety of\nAsia was under foreign (western) occupation bar Japan and Siam (Thailand). In\nvarying degrees, vast swathes of Asian (and also African) territory were under\nthe control of western colonial powers such as Portugal, Spain, Netherlands,\nFrance, Germany, Great Britain, and finally the USA, for nearly 500 years.\nHowever, incrementally South East Asian and South Asian countries won their\nfreedom after 1945 as a fall out from the second world war, and with the\nvictory of Vietnam over USA in 1975, the chapter of colonial occupation of the\norient more or less came to a close. It must be remembered that not all\ncountries in Asia wanted to fight and liberate their countries. Some obtained\ntheir independence on a passive footing virtually on a platter i.e., without a\nfight on the battlefield such as Ceylon and Maldives. Others gave hell for\nleather. It must be noted that the countries that fought the West heroically\nsuch as Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, and India are doing far better economically\ntoday than the countries that opted to walk the path of least resistance to\nforeign occupation e.g., Ceylon.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom\ndid not fall from the sky to Asia. It came due to the freedom fight of Asians\nand their huge blood sacrifices.  Japan under Prime Minister Hideki Tojo\nplayed a big role in this effort being the only major world power to declare at\nthe beginning of Japan\u2019s entry to the second world war that one of its primary\ngoals was the liberation of fellow Asians from Western imperialism. No other\ncountry either in the West or the East gave such a pledge to free people\n(black, brown and yellow races) then in colonial bondage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka\u2019s freedom struggle <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka gained independence on the\nback of the Indian independence struggle. There was no threat of a physical\nnature from the locals to British occupation. It was a very passive movement\nconfined to exchange of letters. We were very weak and incapable of giving\nultimatums to the British to vacate the country. There was no push factor from\nour side.  In contrast , there was a push factor in the Indian struggle\nled by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. Bose started a march on to Delhi with\nJapanese military assistance, with his call \u2018 Delhi Chalo\u2019.  If India did\nnot gain independence on August 15, 1947 neither Burma nor Ceylon would have\nbeen granted independence on January 04, 1948 or February 04, 1948,\nrespectively. When Britain lost the jewel in its Crown i.e., India, it decided\nto vacate South Asia altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons from India <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Govt. of India has declared\nNetaji Subash Chandra Bose as the father of India\u2019s freedom struggle displacing\nMahatma Gandhi from a pedestal that many thought was unassailable.\nThis represents a <\/em>historic shift towards changing the grand\nnarrative of India’s liberation from British occupation. The colonial hangover\nof not saying anything to displease the former masters i.e., British Raj, now\nappears to be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The view that Mahatma Gandhi using\n\u2018Ahimsa\u2019 and \u2018non- violence\u2019 in his civil disobedience campaigns won freedom\nfor India has been discarded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a big myth propagated by the\nBritish and empire loyalists in India.  Gandhi\u2019s \u2018Quit India\u2019 Satyagraha\ncampaign launched in 1942 fizzled out with no effect on the colonial Govt. They\nsaw no threat to their colonial rule from Gandhi and the Indian Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian Mutiny <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the threat of a Mutiny from\nthe British Indian Army soldiers, Navy and Air Force that finally convinced the\nLabour Govt. of Clement Atlee to quit India. A repeat of the Indian Mutiny of\n1857 in 1946 would have ended in the slaughter of 30, 000 British soldiers then\nresident in India by more than 2, 500, 000 well trained Indian soldiers who had\nbeen discharged (demobbed) and returned to India.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The credit given to Gandhi for liberating\nIndia has now collapsed. There was no push factor in his campaign. The rest of\nAsia fought. Japan in particular had a battle plan to liberate India. (\u2018Japan\u2019s\nMaster Plan for Victory: What could have been\u2019 by Moteki Hiromichi \u2013 Tokyo:\n2018). Western colonialism in Asia was ultimately defeated by force of Arms on\nthe part of the people of Asia. The Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Burmese,\nIndians, Philippines, have all successfully fought the West, resisted foreign\noccupation and finally won.   The exit of the West from the East\nafter nearly 500 years of military adventurism and hegemonic rule is one of the\ndefining landmarks of the 20th century. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It must be admitted however that Netaji\nreceived help from both Germany and Japan to wage war against the British then\nin occupation of India.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\ncan be asked: If Adolf Hitler did not supply a German Submarine to carry Netaji\nSubash Chandra Bose out of Germany and to rendezvous with a Japanese Submarine\nI 29 off the shores of Madagascar, which would then in turn carry him to Penang\nand later Japan, how would his life story have unfolded then? The level of\nsupport rendered by both Germany and Japan to Netaji to raise the Indian Legion\nin Germany, and the Indian National Army in Singapore, was pivotal to enable\nNetaji to play the role that he did eventually. Trying to be politically\ncorrect should not lead to sidelining or suppressing important facts from the\nnarrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De\n\u2013 Colonization<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to revise the narrative on\nhow Sri Lanka achieved independence. We gained independence on a platter. No\nfreedom fight in the colloquial sense of waging war on battlefields and\ndefeating the enemy, and thereby gaining freedom from foreign occupation.\nVietnam stands out in this respect. It defeated the most powerful country i.e.,\nthe USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Britain was forced to\ngrant independence because it was heavily weakened economically and militarily\nby the war against Germany, and therefore was in no mood to fight more wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be truly independent our\nminds and our institutions must be decolonized. All colonial legacies, if redundant\nand not necessary for Sri Lanka, should be rejected and replaced.  Ideally\nspeaking, our written History particularly of the colonial era from 1505 \u2013 1948\nshould be reviewed and rewritten by top scholars with de-colonized minds. This\nprinciple also applies to the drawing of the national constitution. It must be\ndone by de-colonized minds as far as possible and not as a copycat exercise. It\nmust never be treated as a Holy Book. Constitutional values should never be\naccepted as a substitute for Civilizational values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patriotism\nand compassion for animals must be inculcated in every child from the time of\nkindergarten. Animal Protection education must be introduced in schools. Self –\nreliance must be encouraged in respect to growing more food locally especially\nplant – based food and more use of traditional medicine. Sri Lanka is basically\nan agricultural country. This country is also a Dharmic Civilizational country.\nThis identity supersedes all other descriptions borrowed from the West such as\nMulticulturalism and Secularism which are more explicable and better understood\nin the countries that they had their origins in rather than in the countries\nthey were planted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka\nWeeraratna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna Sri Lanka won freedom not in isolation but in step with the rest of Asian countries in the aftermath of the end of the Second World War in 1945. Many factors contributed to the collapse of Western Colonial Domination of Asia. But the outstanding and most notable factor was the epic attack of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}